Cookbook Shelf: The Food of Spain

“Recipes have a special place at the heart of Spanish identity,” writes Claudia Roden in her latest cookbook, The Food of Spain, the definitive book on the history of Spanish food. The Spanish identity is rich and complicated, and the food beautiful and simple. With over 200 recipes and 600 gorgeous pictures, Roden demonstrates just how intrinsic the culinary tradition is to Spanish food.

Roden, a James Beard Award-winning author, is an authority on Mediterranean, North African, and Italian cooking, and her past books (The New Book of Middle Eastern Food and The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York) have focused not just on recipes but on how food can change the world. While tempting readers with mouthwatering bites, Roden seamlessly weaves folklore, history, and poetry into stories of what Spaniards eat and why. More importantly, she explains how they cooked each dish.

In researching The Food of Spain, Roden spent years visiting every corner of the country, from Andalusia to Aragon and Castile. With 17 independent communities, from the mountainous interior to the picturesque coast, food in Spain is about local history and ingredients, and each region emerges with its own unique cuisine. Roden intimately got to know these cuisines after talking to food writers, scholars, professional chefs and home cooks, as well as fishermen and farmers.  She took time asking them all what they ate and how they (and their parents and their grandparents) crafted each recipe.

The book is split into three sections — Historical Influences, The Regions, and The Recipes — and each is thoroughly researched and written. Settle in and devour this book at leisure, letting the full color photographs take your imagination on a ride through Spain’s most delicious cities and dishes. From Catalan Romesco sauce to Pulpo a la Feria to saffron-perfumed Paella Valenciana, the very knowledgeable Roden serves as your apt guide.